Baseball|Mets Say Asdrubal Cabrera May Have More Suitors as a Third Baseman

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Mets Say Asdrubal Cabrera May Have More Suitors as a Third Baseman

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Speaking about Asdrubal Cabrera, above, Manager Terry Collins said, “There’s probably a larger market for third basemen than second basemen at this particular point.”CreditCreditJeff Roberson/Associated Press

By Wallace Matthews

July 20, 2017

For sale: One major league infielder, 31 years old, nine years’ experience, decent bat, soft hands, would prefer to play shortstop but capable of playing second and third base as well. Inquire Sandy Alderson, Citi Field, Flushing, N.Y.

Mets Manager Terry Collins did not present that exact sales pitch to the rest of baseball regarding Asdrubal Cabrera, his reluctant second baseman, before his team’s 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday, but he might as well have.

Before the game, Collins acknowledged a report by Newsday that Cabrera would begin taking ground balls at third base, ostensibly because Neil Walker, the Mets’ everyday second baseman, is on the verge of returning from a five-week stay on the disabled list with a hamstring tear.

That is hardly remarkable. What was unusual was Collins’s acknowledgment of another reason for the move: “One thing we’ve tried to get him to understand: There’s probably a larger market for third basemen than second basemen at this particular point, so it would behoove him to have that option,” Collins said. “Even though he hasn’t played over there, this guy’s hands are good enough that he can play anywhere.”

The Mets are providing continuing adult education for a player who is likely to be employed elsewhere come Aug. 1. Cabrera — and Walker, Jose Reyes, Lucas Duda, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson and Addison Reed — will be free agents at the end of this season, and with the Mets’ playoff chances fading faster than the summer, any and all of them could be moved before the looming nonwaiver trade deadline.

“All I know is Terry asked me to take some grounders at third base,” a bemused Cabrera said. “I don’t know what to think. They want to see if I can play third base, either for a trade or because they’re looking for next year, to see if somebody can play third base. I don’t know exactly.”

Only Collins and Alderson, the team’s general manager, know for sure, but a Mets sell-off appears more likely by the day, even with Thursday’s win. Despite an excellent start by Seth Lugo, who took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, the Mets’ offense was largely lifeless against St. Louis starter Lance Lynn, aside from a solo home run by Duda leading off the second inning.

That slim lead held up until the sixth, when Tommy Pham doubled in the tying run off Lugo. The Cardinals took the lead on Pham’s solo home run off Erik Goeddel in the eighth, but the Mets pulled even on Wilmer Flores’s pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the eighth.

They won the game in the ninth when Reyes’s grounder, fielded deep up the first-base line by Matt Carpenter, scored Yoenis Cespedes, who had reached first on a fielder’s choice and advanced to third on T. J. Rivera’s bloop single. Pitcher Trevor Rosenthal was late covering first ahead of the head-first-sliding Reyes.

“I saw the first baseman playing way back, and I said in my mind, if you hit something there, hustle to first base,” said Reyes, who is hitting .333 over his past 28 games, raising his batting average 40 points, to .231, since June 16. “When I saw the pitcher standing on the mound for like two seconds, I said, ‘Oh, man, I got a chance.’ For 34 years old, there’s still something there.”

Collins said: “If the pitcher gets off the mound right away, I don’t think he makes it. When you delay like that and you got a guy who runs like Jose, who runs hard all the time, that’s going to be a tough play.”

It was the Mets’ fourth win in the first seven games of a 10-game homestand that Collins labeled crucial to the team’s fading playoff hopes. But it hardly made a dent in the climb ahead of them; they remain behind five teams in the race for the second National League wild-card spot.

“This was huge for us,” Flores said. “I think every game for us now is a must-win.”

Reyes was not the only tradable player on the roster to showcase himself admirably on Thursday. Reed, the closer, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth in a nonsave situation and came away with his first win of the season. Duda’s homer, his 17th of the season, was a whistling line drive into the visitors’ bullpen in right-center field on a 3-2 fastball from Lynn.

Cabrera, who in June expressed his displeasure over having to shift from shortstop to second base to accommodate Reyes — who Collins feels is a more comfortable and productive player at his favorite position — went 0-for-4. He may be the first Met to be put on public notice that his days in Flushing could be numbered, but he is hardly the only one being put on display.

Reyes and Walker have also been advised by Collins to take some grounders at third, which might be an attempt to showcase them as well, or might be an indication that the Mets are considering promoting Amed Rosario, their top infield prospect, who has played all but a handful of his 87 games for the Class AAA Las Vegas 51s at shortstop.

There has been speculation that the Mets have been reluctant to promote Rosario, who is batting .330 with seven home runs and 53 runs batted in for Las Vegas, because of what they perceive could be a negative reception from Cabrera. The Mets and Cabrera have denied that.

Asked if he would be surprised if he were still a Met beyond July 31, Cabrera said: “No. I mean, this is my team right now. I got all my mind over here. If something happens, it happens. I’m not worried about it. I just come here to play my game and play with my teammates. I can’t control anything else, you know?”

Correction:

An article last Friday about the Mets’ 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals misidentified the Cardinals’ first baseman who fielded Jose Reyes’s winning hit. He is Matt Carpenter, not Luke Voit.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B9 of the New York edition with the headline: Mets Squeeze Out a Victory and Tweak Their Sales Pitch. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe